Virtual Advent Calendar Day 2: Pompom Tree

23 Days Left Until Christmas

The Pom-Pom Christmas Tree

Do you spell it pompom or pompon?  Well, I'm going to use the American term rather than the hoighty-toighty French word.  Regardless of which word you use, today's retro craft is based on this project on pages 114-115 of McCall's Needlework & Crafts magazine, Fall-Winter 1966-67:

"Velvetry:  Only touching is believing their incredible softness!  The needles are overlapping loops of green velvet pinned to a cardboard cone.  The red berries are velvet, but they could easily, and more economically, be velvety-looking red cotton ball fringe.  Sprays of flittered [sic] artificial ivy give the contrasting sparkle.  Worth the trouble to make, for you'll use them, year after year!"  Photo by Richard Jeffery.

Anyone can do this with velvet and "flittered" artificial ivy (or even glittered artificial ivy).  I decided to take a different route based on the fact that I knew I had several bags of pompoms from my years of craft supply hoarding.  Mine is a 100% pompom tree!

Instructions:

If you want to make one of these, and I'm sure you do, this is all you have to do.  Buy a styrofoam form or, if you're like me, go to your Crafateria and get one from the closet.  I used a 6 inch cone form, but why not use a ball or some other shape? 

Next you need a whole lot of pompoms or, as the French would say, "vous avez besoin de beaucoup de pompons, you vile American pig!"  For my 6 inch tree, I used about 10 small packages of various sized pompoms.  The larger the pompoms, the fewer you will need.

Finally, you need pins.  Plain, old common pins will do.  Don't use sequin pins for this projects as they are too short.  You'll need pins that are at least an inch long to accommodate the size of the pompoms. 

Start pinning the pompoms to the form.  This is not rocket science.  Simply stick the pin through the pompom and then into the form.  I started with the largest size, then filled in with the smaller ones.  It took me about an hour to finish this project.  Here's another tip, I needed some way to hold the pins and the pompoms as I worked.  I found that a divided casserole dish worked perfectly; pins on one side, pompoms on the other.  

Cost:  less than $20 (about $4 if you hoard stuff you get at Goodwill)

Time to Complete:  about 1 hour

Craft Skill Level:  slightly more talent than a cement block

Are you read for Day 3?!  See you tomorrow.